All 89 UC Davis Med Center Employees On Self-Quarantine Test Negative For Coronavirus
DAVIS (CBS13) — UC Davis Health announced Thursday that 89 UC Davis Medical Center employees who were put in self-quarantine after being exposed to the nation's first unknown-origin case of the novel coronavirus have tested negative.
The workers were placed on in-home isolation in late February when they came into contact with a Solano County resident being cared for at the hospital who was confirmed as the country's first case of non-travel related COVID-19.
The number of employees on self-quarantine was previously reported as 124 but has since been confirmed by UC Davis Health as 89. UC Davis Health said all employees will be returning to work soon.
Nurses say hospitals are to blame for not developing a safer work environment, shielding them from the infected during the health crisis.
"If all the staff people at the hospital are at risk for contracting a disease, then we bring it to the community, and the community becomes at risk," Registered Nurse Becky Cherry-May said.
Sacramento County's top doctor Peter Beilenson believes the number of cases isn't slowing down, but before you consider this a doomsday model, slow down, because he says 81% of cases of this coronavirus strain are actually mild or asymptomatic.
He says in most of those millions of cases, a majority of the sick will heal themselves with their body's immune system.
"The bottom line is this is not as serious of a condition as many people have been lead to believe," Dr. Beilenson said.
